Apocalypse watched the screen before him carefully. The scenes presented to him by his sattelites were disturbing, to say the least. Sinister, curse him, had warned En Sabah Nur that allowing Lehnsherr and Xavier to remain allies would prove to be a serious hindrance to their plans.

That had been a grave understatement.

While Magneto and his X-Factor teams worked openly, defending human and mutant alike-defending the weak!-Xavier and his X-Men had manipulated the shadows like masters, thwarting Wyngarde and his 'Brotherhood of Evil Mutants' and the Hellfire Club alike. Selene-ah, lovely, murderous Selene-had joined that august body when it was worth being a part of. She now ruled its ghostly remains-a cold comfort to one worthy of being consort to the High Lord himself, no doubt. Whether she would accept now, was another question. One such as her would need to deal from a position of strength; he himself would do no less-

"Milord," Rex nearly whispered.

"Sinister is here. In chains." It was not a question.

"The Marauders brought him themselves, Dark Lord," Rex assured his master. Scalphunter and Arclight walked in before Rex's words finished echoing in the great cavern-hold, the hover-platform drag- ging behind them. Sinister stood upon it, his arms chained behind him, his face a mask of serenity.

"You do not trust me, En Sabah Nur? After all these years?" Sinister asked calmly. Apocalypse snapped his fingers, and the chains fell free. Sinister's hands remained clasped behind him.

Apocalypse laughed.

"Fool," Nur said. "I do not fear anything, save the Reckoning. You were brought to me in chains because-" Apocalypse's laughter stopped as if switched off, and he surged forward. "-you are a FAILURE!"

"Hardly, dread Apocalypse." Though Apocalypse's telepathic skills were limited, he knew that Sinister feared him beneath his eternal mask of cool reserve. This was good; it meant he might still make use of Essex. "Although I did not force Summers and my Grey clone to unite, I still have genetic samples of both. In addition, Phoenix's anger at Xavier for leaving Summers in my hands created a useful division in-"

"You commisserate, worm" Apocalypse rumbled. "I thought, once, that there were seeds of greatness in you. Even I am wrong on occasion."

Sinister smiled. "Were you?" He turned to the great doors to the cavern and waved someone forward.

The remaining Marauders entered, dragging a portly man in. A large Arab, his clothes in tatters and his head enveloped in a large circuit- laden device, raged helplessly at the indignity.

"Fools! These pathetic devices of yours will not hold me! I am Farouk, the Shadow King! I will destroy your minds, shatter your souls-"

"SILENCE!" Apocalypse boomed. Farouk was silent. The High Lord looked down curiously at the furious mutant below him. "So. This is the infamous Shadow King. You seek to diminish your failure by bringing me another failure?" Farouk turned another two shades of red in apoplexy, but wisely kept silent.

"He has unlocked the secret of the Ravens, lord Apocalypse."

Both En Sabah Nur and Farouk froze entirely.

"The Apocalypse?" Farouk whispered.

"The Ravens. One, the child Rogue grown twenty years, the other, as a mother to that same child." He stared down at Farouk, his eyes growing more appraising. "Is this true, mind-dancer? Have you indeed learned the secret of the wife of the apostate Magneto and her blood- sister Darkholme?"

"I do," Farouk said, his voice almost...reverent. "Are you indeed the High Lord, the one destined to lead the war against the enslavers known as gods?"

Apocalypse...stared. "I am impressed. You know of me, and my war. I have answered your question. Answer mine, and you may yet live to serve me."

"I serve no one, Apocalypse, not even you," Farouk replied, straight- ening, "but I would walk your path with you."

"The Ravens," Apocalypse said, his voice lowering dangerously.

"Of course," Farouk nodded. The Marauders released him, taking the greathelm off his head. Scalphunter placed the gun at Farouk's temple.

"Try anything funny, headshrinker, and you'll learn where I got my name," the Marauder warned, a smile forming below his thick mustache.

"Hmmph." Farouk ignored him. "Allow me to show you telepathically, High Lord."

Apocalypse nodded. "Very well. But attempt to dominate ME, and you will die before Scalphunter can kill you. And you will wish he had before you die."

Farouk nodded in reply, and closed his eyes.

For the first time in over a century, Apocalypse's eyes widened in surprise.

Magneto's memories came first, memories of a world where Xavier had died young. Where there had been no X-Factor, only Magneto's X-Men. They had not been enough to stave off the Apocalypse...and En Sabah Nur had ruled the world at long last. Until the apostate had taken it away from him, and restored time. Then his mind, and the bodies of his wife and child, had been flung back to the time of Xavier's assault, creating a new timeline. This timeline.

"The others...they KNEW my plans! They thwarted me before I even rose!"

Farouk simply nodded again, and the panorama shifted.

This time, it was the elder Rogue...now calling herself Raven, as she had been cared for by Darkholme in that timeline as well. Her public identity of Ms. Marvel she took from the original timeline, an unwitting irony which even she knew nothing. She carried the powers of Polaris, rather than the assassin Belladonna whose psychic powers the true Rogue had been given on that deadly woman's sickbed. Ironically, the procediure had saved the woman...but that Rogue was not the one in question. Magneto's wife was not even of this time!

"So, she is not a paradox..." Apocalypse muttered.

The view shifted again, and young Charles, the self-styled "Captain Marvel" appeared in the sands of Israel. His memories were mostly of this world, how his father and his namesake had helped to forge the peace, spread technology freely, inspired and gathered the heroes of the new Age of Wonders...the Fantastic Five, the Avengers, the Supreme Soviet...but still he remembered the old world from which he came.

The other Apocalypse had captured him near the end of the war, and his memories of the survivors had somehow caused their counter- parts in their world to have vague memories of what had become of their world once. They were not about to repeat the experience.

And En Sabah Nur could not blame them.

"By the darkness...how could I have allowed it to go so far?" Apocalypse shook his head. "The gods were BEATEN! Thor was a cripple, Hercules dead, their respective realms fallen, the Elders were next...how?"

"Lord Apocalypse."

Apocalypse snarled at Sinister. "You! You betrayed me once."

"Another Sinister. You have not fallen to that madness."

Apocalypse's eyes narrowed. "You have done well, though a part of me wishes it were otherwise. Very well. Test their mettle. Dark Riders!"

The Dark Riders, who had spent the revelations on their knees, rose as one. "As you command, High Lord, we obey," Gauntlet said without hesitation.

"It is time to choose my Horsemen."

Psynapse trembled. "Is it time, at last? Truly time?"

"The woman Rogue is not a threat to time. Our course has been revealed to me. The humans are championed by Lang and Doom. Mutantkind has Mastermind, Selene...and you.

"LET THE FITTEST SURVIVE!"

The cheer would have deafened lesser beings.

Logan popped a single adamantine claw and decapitated another beer can. One slug and the beer was gone, a quick toss and the can was in the recycle bin. "Heh. Good to see the kids again."

"Yea," Victor said behind him, his expression subdued. "It took some doin', but Jeannie and Scott turned out all right."

"You didn't do so bad with Clarice an' Kyle yerself." Logan grabbed another can. "This blasted healing factor's great for scrappin', but it sure messes up a good drunk."

"Who'da thought we'd turn out to be halfway decent fathers?"

"Hmmph." Logan snorted through his nose, causing him to nearly choke on his latest swig of beer. But a wide grin crossed his face. "That's what Miko keeps tellin' me. Hades. I'm to old ta be startin' from scratch again."

Victor smiled. "I'll bet Daimyo Yashira has other ideas."

"You bet she does." Logan frowned. "She doesn't know what she's in for."

Victor frowned back. "That woman's the toughest witch I've ever met, with the possible exception of Mystique. She knows."

Logan looked sideways over at Victor. "Y'know, ya overgrown cat..."

Victor smiled ferociously. "Yeeeees?"

"I don't think I ever thanked you fer savin' her life."

Victor's smile vanished. He blushed with equal ferocity. "Geez, runt, it's not like I didn't give ya enough grief before-"

"You made up for that." Logan put his hand on Victor's shoulder. "Now stop actin' like a suicidal idiot. You break Clarice's heart, an' I'll come after you in Hades, you hear me?"

Victor laughed. "I'll bet you would, huh, runt! Relax, I got it outta my system. An' stop talkin' like you got the flamin' MP double-A hangin' over your shoulder! Lighten up!"

Logan began to walk back toward the gathered party in the main field. The seniors had finished off the students nicely, backed by Piotr's grand slam off of the otherwise diabolic pitching of Jubilee. "Look who's talkin'. I gotta lecherous Daimyo after me, Jean's been feeling frisky-God help me if Scott catches on, I practically raised 'em both-and Mystique's got a thing for feral types. I ain't had this much action since WW II, an' all I want is ta settle down."

Victor stopped laughing. With considerable effort. He thought he was going to explode; everyone-including Cyclops-knew that Jean had had a crush on Logan for years, but she was probably just teasing him now. Mystique, on the other hand, was usually dead serious about this sort of thing. It was a pretty mess.

They both heard the beeping from Xavier's belt and Magneto's wrist activate simultaneously.

"Oh flamin' hades," Logan snarled, and they both broke into a dead run toward the field.

Even from their distance, their enhanced senses told them what was happening. Wanda had been trying subtlety-again-on Paris. She was going to have to grab his cape and kiss him on the lips before he got the hint, but that was a problem for later. The rest of the Silver Team was talking with various X-Men and students, although Sunspot had managed to corner Shaw. They'd probably been talking about 'Berto's father. Red Team had been waiting behind Storm; she'd been in the process of challenging Blue Team to a basketball game, if the ball in Cyclops' hand was any indication.

"Paris!" Magneto barked. "You take this one. Unknown mutants on robotic horses are rampaging through New York. They have already taken down Spider-Man and are giving Code-Blue the fight of their lives.

"Horses?" Paris blinked for a moment, then shook his head. Old memories rattled around in Logan's head, which he quickly dismissed. That was impossible. "Yes sir. Sabertooth, Sunspot, Iceman, Colossus, Shadowcat. You're all with me. Let's not take any chances with this bunch."

The called mutants nodded. Logan also nodded, in satisfaction; Paris had deserved this chance for some time. Even if he did dress like some- thing out of a fantasy novel.

A whirl of energy, and they were gone.

"Left out again," Blink muttered.

Morph laughed and pinched her cheek. "Oh you kid!" He laughed. "Come on, cheesecake, there'll be plenty of other clowns in suits to beat on. Something always drags them out of the woodwork...what?"

Suddenly a lot of X-types were staring at him with evil grins.

Logan's smile broadended. Those horsemen weren't the only ones who were about to get what was coming to them...

The mutant strike team materialized. Primarily X-Factor members, but Colossus provided added strength, which Sunspot, in Exodus' opinion, did not cover sufficiently for Silver Team.

"Spread out," Exodus said, all business. "Check everyone's six."

"sniff sniff-We're clean, boss," Victor said. "They're down a few blocks."

"I see them," Paris said grimly. Four. Four horsemen. It couldn't be.

Unlike the rest of the combined X-teams, Paris' knowledge of Apoc- alypse was not confined to faded memories. But when Magneto had rescued him, he'd teleported Apocalypse into deep space. Surely he was still out there, floating frozen in the void. Not dead, of course- En Sabah Nur was too tough for that-but still...

"Move in. Shadowcat, take Sabretooth on your phasewalk. Iceman, Colossus, get under them. Sunspot, you're with me. Let's bag these losers." Paris floated up, cloaking himself and Sunspot in fields of altered light.

Iceman looked at Colossus, who shrugged. The big Russian stepped onto the ice sled, and they slid down the side of the skyscraper on which they'd arrived. Shadowcat looked at Sabertooth neutrally.

"Wishin' for Logan, kid?"

"Yes," she replied, "but you'll do in a pinch."

They smiled, Kitty took his hand and they walked into open space.

"Dios," 'Berto swore, crossing himself. "They think it's a game."

"Let's not make that mistake, Sunspot." Paris flew forward. Sunspot followed.

Below the Silver Team fliers, the Horsemen were making short work of Code: Blue. Half the team had been hit by their own tanglers, every transport they had had been blown to pieces, and most of the rest of the metahuman SWAT team was lying on the ground, either sweating or reduced to gaunt thinness.

"Caramba," Sunspot breathed.

Now, Paris projected to them.

Iceman fired blasts of supercooled spikes at one horseman-woman?- but she dodged with relative ease. Colossus was propelled at one of the men at the same time, but he dodged as well, Colossus just barely grabbing a hold of the robot's leg.

"Blast! Cat's eye!"

Paris had identified them positively now; the man whose horse Piotr had grabbed was War, his mask frozen in a glare of fury; the woman who had avoided Iceman's attack was Famine, her thin frame and hollow-cheeked mask obvious evidence. Pestilence wore no mask; she was the psychotic mutant Infectia, who had held Warren prisoner for a few days last year. Death was a well-built man wearing a skull mask. How predictable, Paris thought, as Sabertooth material- ized in front of Infectia/Pestilence.

"Heya, fekt-girl!" Sabertooth laughed as he tore into the horse and slammed his fist into the woman's face. The horse shorted out as Shadowcat phased through it and floated after her husband.

Infectia's disease-powers failed utterly against Sabertooth, and she collapsed into her saddle. Sunspot caught the horse, throwing a leg at Famine to make her efforts harder. War clapped his hands, and Iceman's next attack-an enormous iceball-exploded in his face.

"One of them must be a telepath! Link up and shield your minds!" Paris flew quickly at Death, and they dodged around one another, trading energy blasts as they circled one another. Code: Blue wisely retreated, dragging the unconscious Spider-Man with them. The '5' on his chest was all but burned out.

Sunspot flew at War now, their explosive powers lighting the air around them like a nightmarish fireworks show. Iceman shook his head and tried to draw a bead, instead freezing Shadowcat in place inside a thin, high tower of ice. Colossus quickly leaped off of War, breaking the ice tower in the middle and throwing a piece at Famine as he fell. She didn't even come close to dodging that one; the telepath-Death, in all likelihood-had his limits after all. In fact, he became distracted at that point, and Paris took advantage of the distraction to close with him and tear off his mask. He almost cried in relief, which was truly bizarre given what he saw.

"Farouk," he said hoarsely. "Gone into the supervillain-terrorist business, Shadow King?" They locked with one another in psychic combat, Farouk's telepathic might pressing at Paris' crude defenses while Exodus countered with his psychokinetic skill.

"Hardly," the Shadow King replied, pressing back with superhuman strength. Exodus paled. "I am one of the fit, and we shall survive!"

"NO!" Exodus unleashed his full power, and even the Shadow King staggered before it. "You do serve him, you bastard! You serve the APOCALYPSE!"

"Hey, Exodus, some of that leadership skill would be real nice about now!" Sabertooth called out as he wrapped the horse's last leg around Infectia's waist and arms. War clapped again, and the remains of the ice tower blew apart, sending Colossus and Shadowcat tumbling again. "We can deal with Apocalypse after we nail these losers!"

"Can you," a voice like rust scraping ebony replied. "You were one of the fit once, Creed. Now you are so much genetic fodder."

"Oh, shit," Victor said, turning just in time to see a fist the size of a freight train barrelling towards him.

It stopped inches from Sabertooth's face.

"You spread youself to thin-" Farouk's face went white as Shadowcat phased through him, carrying a more-or-less recovered Iceman.

"That's what I call a cold shoulder," Kitty quipped as Farouk flew back desperately, his horse wobbling as he tried to recover. Sunspot and War were going toe to toe on the last functioning horse, now, and Colossus was scrambling up the fire escape in his human form.

Paris screamed incoherently and hurled himself at Apocalypse.

Apocalypse turned his arm into an enormous shield as energy flew from Exodus' hands. The building below them trembled.

"Enough power to incinerate an ironclad," Apocalypse said with a smile. "You see its effectivenes against the Apocalypse."

"I see a dead man!" Exodus raged, slamming into the shield and forcing Apocalypse back.

"Hnng-you saw what became of Havok when he challenged Sinister. You think that you will fare any better against me?"

Paris' eyes bulged; he hadn't though his fury could burn any hotter. "Alex Summers died a hero, monster! You will die and the world will cheer your loss!"

"Not today," Apocalypse replied, casually flicking Sabertooth away as he tried to flank the High Lord. "And never at the hands of a stripling such as yourself. However," Apocalypse added with a smile, "I have invested too much in you to kill you now."

"You only held me three days, you can't turn me!"

"You will come to me of your own volition, Exodus," Apocalypse whispered. "And you will be my right hand." The immortal mutant faded in a red glow, as did his horsemen.

"NEVER!" Paris cried, every form of energy slicing through the space Apocalypse had been in a moment ago.

"Whoa, easy big guy, !paz, hombre!" Sunspot grabbed Exodus' shoulders. The powerful psion whirled and faced his teammate, balefire glowing in his eyes.

"AAH! PARIS!"

Exodus blinked, the rage gone all at once. "Gods...Sunspot, I'm-I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't-" He sighed as Colossus reached the top of the building. "Come on, mutants. Let's go check on Code: Blue."

Shielded by the Shadow King's psishields and his own technology, Apocalypse watched with vast amusement as their adversaries went to help the wounded humans.

"Not the outcome I'd hoped for, High Lord," Farouk admitted.

"On the contrary, it was far more of a success than I'd hoped. Our horsemen did quite well, for a group of individuals against a seasoned team of warriors. And Exodus...I never dared to hope that he would have such rage stored in him." Apocalypse smiled, but not a mocking smile. He was genuinely pleased. "He has the power to strengthen others. Between us, Shadow King, we shall forge the sheep, teach them to be swords instead of plowshares. And then...then we will be ready. The armies of tomorrow shall march, and this world shall rule all others. We shall be supreme."

Farouk blinked, watching the High Lord carefully. "You mean to make humanity strong to conquer aliens?"

"No," Apocalypse replied, his smile broadening. "To become gods." --